Where World’s Stainless Production Stands at?

The Belgium based International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has recently announced the third quarter numbers of world’s stainless steel output for CY 2017. As per the numbers released, the world’s total stainless steel production for first three quarters i.e. from Jan to Sep’17 stands at 36.1 MnT, up by 7.44% against 33.6 MnT in corresponding period of previous year.

ISSF has divided the various stainless steel producing countries in five regions namely Europe, U.S., China, Asia without China and South Korea and Others. The world’s total stainless steel output in the year 2016 stood at 45.78 MnT.

China is the leader in stainless steel production and its output for first three quarters of 2017 stood at 19.7 MnT, up by 8.89% against similar time frame of previous year.
Europe’s stainless steel output dropped by 7.05% in first three quarters of 2017 against corresponding period of previous year and stood at 5.54 MnT. U.S.’s stainless steel output stood at 2.1 MnT in 2017, down by 3.67% against first three quarters of year 2016.

Indian Stainless Steel Market

According to the statement released by ISSDA (Indian Stainless Steel Development Association), India’s total steel output is expected to reach a mark of 3.6 MnT by the end of year 2017. This will be up by about 9% against previous year’s production of 3.3 MnT. The rise is numbers are predicted in response to the rising demand of stainless steel from sectors such as auto, roads, highways, and housing. Along with this, the countervailing duty on certain Chinese stainless steel items have restricted the imports in to the country, thus contributing to increase in domestic numbers.

The production cost of stainless steel is expected to come down in India, as the government has removed import duty on nickel which is a key raw material in stainless steel production. The efforts are also being made by the steel ministry to remove import duty on ferro-nickel and stainless steel scrap resulting in further reduction of raw material costs required for stainless steel production.

World’s Stainless Steel Output in First Three Quarters

*Considers Asia without China and South Korea

Source: ISSF